Malawi Asks Moscow to Send Specialists to Fight Cholera, Russian Ambassador Says

08:14 GMT, 11 March 2023

Kirill Kurevlev

Managing Editor

According to last month's data, Malawi is battling its biggest cholera outbreak to date, with the death toll exceeding 1,300 since March last year. The WHO said earlier that the the present outbreak in Malawi is the deadliest on record, overtaking outbreaks in 1998/99 and 2001/02, which resulted in 860 and 968 deaths, respectively.

Sputnik

Malawi has asked Moscow to send Russian specialists to fight the cholera outbreak in the country, Russian Ambassador to Zimbabwe and Malawi Nikolai Krasilnikov said.

"The Malawians are showing interest in restoring and developing cooperations with Russia in various fields... Recently, contacts took place between Rospotrebnadzor [Russia's Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing] and the Ministry of Health of Malawi on the possible participation of Russian specialists in the fight against cholera," the diplomat told Russian media.

Krasilnikov added that Malawi has also asked Russia to train diplomats at the courses of the diplomatic academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"As for business, it is important to take into account the plans of the Malawian government to diversify the economy through the development of energy, transport infrastructure, gold mining. Good opportunities for establishing contacts with the Malawians are opened by the economic and humanitarian forum that will accompany the second Russia-Africa summit at the end of July in St Petersburg," the ambassador noted.

He added that Malawian representatives intend to take part in the parliamentary conference in Moscow.

According to the country's health ministry's statement in late January, supplies of the cholera vaccine have run out in all medical facilities. The ministry noted that Malawi's ongoing cholera vaccination campaign had exhausted all 2.9Mln doses of the Gavi-supported Global Oral Cholera Vaccine Stockpile, which was supplied by the World Health Organization (WHO) in November 2022.

Since 1998, cholera has been endemic in Malawi, with seasonal outbreaks occurring during the rainy season (November through May). The present outbreak, though, has persisted beyond the dry season; instances have been documented since March 2022.

Apart from that, last week, the Russian fertilizer producer group Uralchem-Uralkali delivered 20,000 tons of fertilizer to Malawi as a charity, and the East African country became the first to receive a humanitarian supply from the company to Africa from EU ports, where up to 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizer have been blocked because of anti-Russian sanctions.